Rock, country, zydeco, blues and so much more are encompassed in the acts. It runs every Thursday from June thru early August and the setting is an oasis that is amazing. We went three times this year and a breeze permeates thru the shaded grounds nicely with kids frollicking about rolling down the hills, picnic baskets with blankets and chairs, refreshments being sold by the likes of Faylene DeFrancis who has been a regular for years, Associated Credit Union (ACU) of Texas, Papa Johns Pizza and the Citizens Police Academy to name a few.  Nicole has let me know that they are being supported to be more aggressive in marketing, ala food trucks, and the on-going selection of new original bands like the fine one this evening.

Rose and I first crossed paths with Painting Bleu Birds back in June of 2014 at Rick Heysquierdo’s KPFT’s Troubadour Tuesday series @ Cottonwood in Houston.  Still have their catchy magnet they slid me along with the CD, “Gone Flying”, filled with infectious grooves and tasty vocals, especially from Ashleigh Painter.  She holds down the bulk of the singing, be-boppin’ dance moves and some mouth harp along with Danny Painter doing a good job on guitar and vocals.  David Rudd was handlin’ a thumpin’ good groove on bass, Brock Wilson on guitar and keys with Michael Grammar backing it all up on skins.

Their CD really comes to life in a live gig setting lead by the sultry soft, sexy and aggressive rasp of Ashleigh.  The acoustics were set nicely to showcase her talents on stick in your head numbers like “Easy Love”, “All Shook Up”, funked up “Fall For You”, poppy bluesey “21st Century Blues” and delightful “Flying Free”.  DP was no slouch either when revved up tunes like “Denim Hymn” or knock out version of Shake Russell’s “So Late” ,complete with crowd sing-a-long of “tick-tock it won’t stop” lyrics, showed versatilty to shift gears and give another slant to this talented outfit. An attribute that showed great promise also to this reviewer was their style on doing cover tunes.  To quote the band: “We play 97% original music and add a few covers in for good measure.  Most of them are the Rolling Stones and they’re usually too mangled to recognize.”  In other words, they improvise quite well and make old tunes new again especially their lovable version of “Shattered” which Roark from 90.1 FM featured on his Wide Open Spaces daily show, “Beast of Burden” , “Folsom Prison” and a hauntingly good version of Melanie’s 70’s hit “Roller Skates”!!  Again to quote the band: “We sing only what we write and we write only what thrills us. What thrills us most is to write and sing songs that
honor the human spirit in all is ragged glory.”

We at HMR have seen tons of shows and to enjoy a band as good as this-who gave out their CD for free with no cover or tip jar-is beyond refreshing and note worthy.  They are booked to play Red Door Theatre in Pasadena,Tx on 10/16/15 and you can find them at : www.paintingbleubirds.com.  You’ll be glad you did.

In closing,  if you enjoy a good old fashioned slice of apple pie USA feeling, this event is for you.  Having a young man coordinate the raffle giveaway at the break for prizes and “Rosco the Rec Dog” roaming the grounds snapping pics with everybody is very heart warming cool.  Caring fun loving folks trying to give us a break from the rat race is not only welcome but applauded.

See y’all under a tree with a cold one in 2016…………God Bless live music and please support it will ya?!